VII 



THE GREAT BIRD-BREEDING ROOKERIES ALONG THE FLORIDA, 

 ATLANTC AND GULF COASTS 



^ United States, Florida, other States and the 

 National Association of the Audubon Societies, have very 

 wisely set apart a number of islands and other suitable 

 locations for the exclusive use of the shore birds as 

 breeding rookeries. These reservations are under the 

 supervision of game wardens who have, in a measure, 

 checked the shameful and ruthless slaughter of birds and 

 the sale of their plumage. A special permit must be 

 secured before one is allowed to visit or land on the reser- 

 vations. Through the courtesy of Mr. E. W. Nelson, 

 Chief of the Bureau of the United States Biological Sur- 

 vey; Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, President of the National 

 Association of Audubon societies, and Mr. B. J. Pacette, 

 Inspector of Federal Reservations, I was granted the 

 privilege of visiting these vast rookeries for the purpose 

 of studying their population and making photographs. 



Early in March, 1920, 1 made a trip to Florida, plan- 

 ning to visit Pelican Island, in the Indian River. Two 

 days before my arrival a five-inch rain and an adverse 

 wind caused the flooding of the island and the destruction 

 of over three thousand nests and their eggs. I returned 

 to Kansas City at once, resolving to make a second visit 

 later in the season. 



On May 20, 1920, as I took my departure for my 

 second trip that year to the big bird rookeries along the 

 Florida Coast, I recalled my former visit and the seeming 

 sadness and lonely aspect of the Pelican population, as 

 they aimlessly sat around on the sand or floated on the 

 water near by, their incubating destroyed for the season. 

 I contrasted them with their long-necked and slender- 

 legged, graceful bird neighbors a few miles from there, 

 at another rookery. I thought of the brackish tide-water 

 flowing through the mangrove swamps; of the countless 

 peace-destroying and disease-breeding Florida mos- 



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